


how many thousand ways you kill me and pick me up again

by silverfoxflower



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Red Room, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-08
Updated: 2014-09-08
Packaged: 2018-02-16 14:21:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2273052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverfoxflower/pseuds/silverfoxflower
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were all liars, in the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	how many thousand ways you kill me and pick me up again

She’s bleeding from the side, lying on the cooling body of the man she was supposed to protect, scrabbling for the gun in her ankle holster. Her hands keep slipping - wet with blood. The air rings loud with the sound of her breathing.

He walks towards her, slowly, methodically, an eerie black figure through the fire and smoke. She has her weapon ready and trained on him by the time he’s looming over her, his own gun slung over his shoulder and his face completely covered by goggles and a mask. He looks inhuman. Unstoppable.

Natasha grits her teeth. She feels like her entire body is trembling, but her aim is sure. She’s aiming for a headshot, a sure-kill from a lying position upwards 6-foot-plus at a steep angle. She’s just got this one chance.

He makes no move to knock the gun from her hands. For a full minute he stays completely still, as if daring her to take the shot.

"Confirmed kill," she spits out.

She watches her reflection on his goggles, a flash of red as he inclines his head (It’s not a nod. It might have been) and walks away, leaving her bleeding.

—

“Natalia,” he tells her, grabbing the barrel of her gun and pressing it against his forehead. “You shoot to kill. Always.”

She’s nineteen. She’s nineteen and trembling and she hasn’t learned how to stop that from wavering her aim. “Even if …?” She asks, because she has no illusions about this place, the weapons they create and sell to the highest bidder. No loyalty that can’t be turned with the flip of a switch.

"Even if it’s me," he says, "Especially if it’s me. Because I. Will. Not. Hesitate."

He releases his hold on the gun and she lets it drop to her side like a lead weight.

—

They were all liars, in the end.


End file.
